Aereo files complaint against CBS to stop repetitive lawsuits

Pioneering streaming television service Aereo has filed a declaratory judgment action in New York against CBS in an effort to prevent the network from filing another lawsuit against them just ahead of a planned launch in Boston on May 15.

Aereo spokesperson Virginia Lam told CNET that the fact that CBS did not prevail in their existing federal lawsuit does not entitle them to a do-over in another jurisdiction. She further noted that Aereo is hopeful that such efforts to launch a duplicative lawsuit to try and seek a different outcome will be rejected by the courts.

CBS, along with ABC, Fox and NBC, have been unsuccessful thus far in getting the service shut down through federal court. In a lawsuit filed last year, trial courts rejected a request for a preliminary injunction against Aereo. That decision was again upheld in appeals court just last month – serious blows against the major networks in their effort to shut the service down.

CBS spokesperson Dana McClintock recently tweeted that his company would sue and that stealing signal will be found to be illegal in Boston just as it will be everywhere else. That tweet was in reference to Aereo’s upcoming launch in Beantown.

In a follow-up message to CNET, McClintock said Aereo’s legal maneuvers and public relations stunts do not change the fundamentally illegal nature of Aereo’s business. What’s more, the spokesperson pointed out that Aereo’s illegal business model will be contested anywhere they attempt to operate.